Our country scene appears strong, yet it doesn’t get it a lot of respect in the U.S. Sure, we’ve still got Shania Twain, but for the most part U.S. stardom eludes our homegrown talent. It’s been a long time since Clark, Wright and Brandt were scoring top-10 hits in Nashville.

As a matter of fact, the best known name playing at the Canadian Country Music Awards at Copps Coliseum Monday night will be Ronnie Dunn, an American.

Even Johnny Reid, a Scottish native who grew up in Brampton and now lives in Nashville, hasn’t been able to break outside of Canada. Despite scoring double platinum sales (more than 200,000) on each of his last two Canadian releases and garnering six CCMA nominations this year, he is still unknown in the U.S.

“There’s only two legitimate Canadian country acts that I know of with international (record) deals right now, one is Shania Twain and the other is (Alberta roots singer) Corb Lund,” says Ron Kitchener, president of Toronto’s Open Road Recordings, an independent label that has been fostering Canadian talent for the past eight years.

“At one time you had six, seven or maybe 10 Canadian artists who had international deals.”

The strength of Kitchener’s Open Road label, however, is proof that artists can have successful careers in Canada without being beholden to the American market or the Nashville majors.

Open Road artists are nominated for a total of 27 CCMA awards this year. Kitchener, himself, has twice won Record Company Person of the Year and his RGK Entertainment Group has won management company of the year 10 times.

“People are realizing that if we do it right, there is an industry here where we don’t have to worry about signing a U.S. deal,” Kitchener says. “It used to be that a Canadian country act without an American deal would basically be a summer job. They would go out and play a handful of festivals in the summer and there would be few other opportunities to play …

“Now people are learning that with the right kind of planning and marketing, we can maintain tours through the fall and the spring.”

Artist Dean Brody is a case in point. Brody, a B.C. native, spent some six years in Nashville trying to hit it big. He scored a record deal with Nashville label Broken Bow Records and scored a minor hit in 2008 with his touching song, Brothers. It was about the effects of war and found a lot of fans in the U.S.

Brothers was a strong debut and Brody seemed on the way to American success. A water skiing accident derailed a promotional tour for two months, but the song kept getting radio play. Brody’s Nashville dream ended in a dispute with the label over who would manage his career. The label cut ties with Brody.

After six years in Nashville, Brody, his wife and two young children returned to Canada, settling on the south shore of Nova Scotia.

Back in Canada, Brody signed with Open Road and last year released his second CD, Trail in Life. The album, which has garnered him five CCMA nominations, has a more mature sound than his U.S. debut. It’s hard to imagine songs like Yellow Blanket and People Know You By Your First Name not being hits in the U.S. The album, however, has not been released there.

Still, Brody is happy to be in Canada. He’s completed a cross-country tour with Terri Clark and will be going across the country again on the CMT Hitlist Tour with Aaron Lines and Deric Ruttan.

“I feel like they still play by the rules here,” says Brody, who will perform Saturday at the CCMA FanFest and again at the awards show on Monday. “It’s kind of old fashioned up here. There’s still a passion for music, whereas down there it just felt so massive and so corporate. The music was a secondary thing.”

Deric Ruttan is a native of Bracebridge, Ont., who has lived and worked in Nashville for 17 years, nine of them without a record deal. In 2003, he released his debut record on the U.S. Lyric Street label. Ruttan’s own record enjoyed limited U.S. success, but he reached the top of the charts by writing a string of hits for other artists, including What Was I Thinkin’ for Dierks Bentley.

“Writing for other people can be very lucrative,” says Ruttan, explaining a four-year hiatus between his first and second album releases.

Ruttan continues to live in Nashville with his wife and five children. He still writes for U.S. artists, like Eric Church and Gary Alan, but his own recording and performance career is limited almost entirely to Canada.

Ruttan, who also will be performing at FanFest and the awards show, blames the lack of Canadian success stories in the U.S. on Nashville’s competitive nature.

“It is a tough, tough town,” Ruttan says. “It’s like going to Hollywood and becoming the next Tom Cruise or going to New York and being a big hit on Broadway. Nashville is where everyone in the world comes to do their thing. As a result, the bar is so very high here on every level. Not to say that the bar isn’t so high in Canada, but it’s quite honestly just an exponentially different level of competition.”

“If you’re one of the fortunate ones who make it through the machine and people get to hear your music, I don’t think they care where you’re from.”

Ruttan released his last CD, Sunshine, exclusively in Canada on his own Black T Records label. With the help of Canadian content regulations, it has received radio play across the country.

Sunshine has brought him five CCMA nominations, including record label of the year. His Canadian tour to promote the album turned out to be so successful he decided to record a live album from it. Up All Night — Deric Ruttan Live will be released Sept. 20.

“I love my life right now,” Ruttan, 39, says. “Because of my radio hits as an artist in Canada, I’m at a stage where I can pick and choose on a performance side which shows I want to do. I so appreciate the privilege of being able to go up to Canada, have people pay me to play and hear them sing along with my songs.”